As the battle rages on regarding the non-release of Mitt Romney’s income tax data with Sen. Harry Reid claiming that the GOP presidential candidate hasn’t paid any taxes for ten years, it’s astonishing that the focused-headlines don’t switch to President Barack Obama’s unreleased records – in particular, his college transcripts. In an attempt to keep the nation’s minds off of President Barack Obama’s unreleased data, the controversial representative from California, Nancy Pelosi, has now joined in the Reid tax-attacks against Romney.

If the White House set Reid up for this Romney challenge – which many people believe it has – there is a simple answer as to why Reid was picked. How many more terms could this senator possibly run for at his elderly age? If the whole Romney tax-challenge blows up in his face, he’s near the end of his career anyway. The same might be said for the elderly Nancy Pelosi. At this stage of her career, what has she really got left to lose?

Regardless of the reason Reid and Pelosi are leading the cry for Romney’s tax information, the whispers on the “right” for Obama’s records on various issues are extremely disappointing. Seeing how reserved and even polite the politicians on the “right” are when the politicians on the “left” are so unrelenting and bold with their unsubstantiated claims is frustrating – even maddening.

Let’s assume for a moment that people do care about what they should be concerned about – the reason why the current president isn’t releasing his data. In particular, many – including me – are interested in what information the college transcripts have to offer about Obama. Certainly, the release of Obama’s college data would tell us more about Obama that we don’t know than Romney’s tax data would tell us about Romney that we don’t already know.

No matter what Romney’s tax data shows us, we already know he has been an extremely successful businessman – which obviously equates to extreme wealth. We already know this. What we don’t know – and can only assume is extreme doubt – is what is so sacredly hidden in Obama’s unreleased files.

What could possibly be in Obama’s college transcripts that could hurt his image – or more? There has been a great deal of speculation. Mostly, people are assuming the obvious which is that his grades weren’t up to par, and that would be an embarrassment to the President and a blow to his reputation for being highly-intelligent. I – and apparently many other people – don’t think that’s it at all. If Obama’s college transcripts show that he wasn’t a straight-A student, he wouldn’t be the first president – and he likely won’t be the last. Besides, where is it written that a president has to be a scholar in every academic area? Nowhere.

So, if it’s not the grades, what is in there that just can’t be released to the public? Let’s think about what else would be in the transcripts. There would be the names of the courses he took. Perhaps Obama had interest in and took some controversial and possibly even anti-American courses. Again, this is only speculation because his college transcripts are not public. More damaging than finding out what courses of study Obama may have taken – and even which campus activities and groups he took part in – would be administrative information including his method of entering the colleges and universities.

Maybe – just maybe – the college transcripts would reveal that Obama was a “foreign exchange” student. Now, that is a possibility that would be devastating to an American president.

Would such information prove that he wasn’t born in the United States? Of course not. But it might prove that he cheated the system to get into the schools of his choice. Either would be a devastating blow to his image.

Forget Romney’s taxes that will simply confirm his wealthy. Let’s see Obama’s college transcripts and find out what is necessary for him to hide.

About Scott Paulson

Scott Paulson writes political commentary for Examiner.com and teaches English at a community college in the Chicago area. The views and opinions expressed in this post are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of CBS Local.